Name: Codes - H2
Uploaded: 2020-03-31T20:27:38+00:00
Duration: 3 min 21 s
Description: Our world is made up of codes. Find out how binary code is connected to DNA.

Our world is made up of codes. Find out how binary code is connected to DNA.

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Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.

Think about the following questions as you watch the video

What do computer viruses and biological viruses have in common?
How have codes changed warfare?
How are computer codes similar to living organisms?

: NARRATOR: To the microscopic world of the virus...
: (coughing)
: ...this virus is designed to replicate itself
: and perpetually infect its host.
: This virus operates on the same kind of orders.
: Whether biological or digital,
: a virus runs on a code with a mission of destruction.
: Big History connects microbiology...
: ...to a new age of warfare.
: Iran, 2007.
: (beeping)
: A self-replicating computer virus called a "worm"
: infiltrates a nuclear facility.
: MAN: We created this computer warfare against an enemy--
: warfare in which no one travels overseas,
: no one fires a single bullet or drops a single bomb.
: NARRATOR: The digital worm is a code
: programmed to disable machines
: by jumping from computer to computer
: until it finds its target.
: (alarm ringing)
: Humans create codes that seem to have lives of their own,
: echoing the secret code within all of life.
: Big History zooms in...
: ...to the code that programs us.
: SAM KEAN: The first creatures that emerged
: were very small microbes,
: and those creatures used DNA to store information.
: NARRATOR: Like binary code, DNA starts simple:
: just four chemicals.
: But they combine in millions of complex sequences
: that govern every cell in every living thing on Earth.
: TREVOR VALLE: DNA, helixes, all of that is a type of code.
: It's little bits of information
: to create a larger bit of information
: to create a larger bit of information.
: It's like you take two hydrogen atoms, you take an oxygen atom,
: you have water.
: You take a bunch of water and you have a sea.
: You take a bunch of seas, you have oceans.
: Everything has a code.
: You can't just think that a code
: is something in your computer that makes it run.

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Codes - H2

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